The Wretched (2019)
A lad in his late teens goes to live with his father and work in the local marina. He slowly experiences weird phenomena as he comes to realise a witch is inhabiting the skin of his next door neighbour.
An interesting premise which mixes witchcraft and folk horror with modern day life but it's clumsily executed. There's way too much family drama and teen angst, in fact it's more like a high school movie than a horror for the bulk of it's running time. The characters are decently sketched and John-Paul Howard is a likable enough lead but for an hour you could easily forget what type of film you were watching.
When it does go full blown horror it's quietly effective. There are some fine creepy moments and fun practical special effects such as the witch climbing out of the neighbour's body, but the horror then feels a bit rushed compared to the languid pace of the first hour. My main grumble is the film lacked any sort of tension or a sense of dread. Had it done so then i'd have scored this quite highly rather than just simply average, but i did find it much more engaging than the majority of recent supernatural horror films.
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